# Building the Pyramids Today.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 5, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263 "2019-01-05T20:57:07Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/1 "2019-01-05T20:57:07Z")
A lot of amazing structures are around even today. Stonehenge, the Easter island monoliths–and the Pyramids, just to name a few. The Pyramids are so amazing, they even have a place on the US great seal, as a symbol of human achievement.
But could we build them today?
Could we chisel the blocks, move them and position them just so, like they are in these amazing structures?
And actually I have a second question. And this admittedly is a little bit more abstract. Could we do it if we put our minds to it, like they did back then?
:):)🙂
EDIT: Actually now that I think about it, this might be better suited for GD. But we’ll see how it works out:).
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### Author:  [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/2 "2019-01-05T21:18:41Z")
Of course, the answer to both questions is “yes.” Given enough money, it would hardly be a technical challenge. Much easier if we’re able to use modern technology, but doable either way.
But now I’m curious. Why would anyone think that they COULDN’T be replicated? Contrary to some people’s belief, there’s hardly anything mysterious about their actual, physical construction. As to the exact techniques that were used, there is some conjecture.
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### Author:  [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/3 "2019-01-05T21:23:33Z")
Could we use the geyser system this time, please?
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/4 "2019-01-05T21:34:02Z")
With modern power tools, cutting the blocks would be easy.
The largest blocks were 80 000 kg. NASA’s [crawler-transporters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter) are capable of moving 1 800 000 kg. So moving the blocks is doable.
The biggest obstacle is financial.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/5 "2019-01-05T21:47:09Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> A lot of amazing structures are around even today. Stonehenge, the Easter island monoliths–and the Pyramids, just to name a few. The Pyramids are so amazing, they even have a place on the US great seal, as a symbol of human achievement.
>
> But could we build them today?
>
> Could we chisel the blocks, move them and position them just so, like they are in these amazing structures?
>
> And actually I have a second question. And this admittedly is a little bit more abstract. Could we do it if we put our minds to it, like they did back then?
>
> :):)🙂
>
> EDIT: Actually now that I think about it, this might be better suited for GD. But we’ll see how it works out:).
Not only could we do it, we could do it in a quarter of the time, using less than half the number of people they did.
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### Author:  [@Bear\_Nenno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bear_Nenno)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/6 "2019-01-05T21:51:46Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> With modern power tools, cutting the blocks would be easy.
>
> The largest blocks were 80 000 kg. NASA’s [crawler-transporters](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crawler-transporter) are capable of moving 1 800 000 kg. So moving the blocks is doable.
Hell, the Liebherr Mobile Crane could easily lift those blocks and its boom could almost reach 3/4 of the way to the top. Build a ramp, or a slightly bigger crane, and it’s a breeze.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/7 "2019-01-05T22:03:30Z")
[According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation](https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/history/essays/concrete.html), “Hoover Dam was the first man-made structure to exceed the masonry mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza”. And the Three Gorges Dam in China is [“five times larger”](https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2006/06/china-three-gorges-dam-how-big/) than the Hoover Dam.
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### Author:  [@SamuelA](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SamuelA)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/8 "2019-01-05T22:09:36Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#):
>
> [According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation](https://www.usbr.gov/lc/hooverdam/history/essays/concrete.html), “Hoover Dam was the first man-made structure to exceed the masonry mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza”.
Since everyone knows the pyramids were alien-made, not man made of course.
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### Author:  [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/9 "2019-01-05T22:17:28Z")
I think that just raises the question:
_Who (or WHAT) built the Hoover Dam?!?!!1!_ :dubious: :eek:
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/10 "2019-01-05T22:53:31Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> The biggest obstacle is financial.
How about the Inca pyramids? Surely Mexico would pay for _that_?
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### Author:  [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/11 "2019-01-05T23:03:26Z")
> [@Riemann](#):
>
> How about the Inca pyramids? Surely Mexico would pay for _that_?
Why would Mexico pay for pyramids in Peru?
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### Author:  [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/12 "2019-01-05T23:04:07Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#):
>
> But could we build them today?
Easily. A friend of mine took part in a partial reconstruction of Stonehenge - IIRC they built one trilithon somewhere entirely using ancient methods.
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### Author:  [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/13 "2019-01-05T23:29:33Z")
> [@jasg](#):
>
> Why would Mexico pay for pyramids in Peru?
You’re saying they would exploit my ignorance of the location of pre-Columbian cultures to get out of paying? Typical.
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### Author:  [@rat\_avatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rat_avatar)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2019, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/14 "2019-01-05T23:32:39Z")
Or more correctly, what we \*think \*the ancient methods were.
But that is a problem even on much shorter time scales, as an example NASA had to [reverse engineer the F-1](https://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/) engine used on Saturn V and Apollo just a few years ago, because a lot of critical knowledge was lost in just a few decades.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/15 "2019-01-06T03:04:05Z")
There is a sense in which it’s true that we don’t know how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramid. But that’s just because we know of multiple ways they could have done it, and we don’t know which one they went with. It’s not like there’s no known way they could have.
If we wanted to today, we could also spend tens of thousands of man-years on building them using the ancient methods. But of course, we could do it a lot more easily using modern methods. Or we could build structures far more impressive and far more practical than the pyramids, which the ancients couldn’t have done at all.
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### Author:  [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/16 "2019-01-06T03:10:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#):
>
> There is a sense in which it’s true that we don’t know how the ancient Egyptians built the pyramid. But that’s just because we know of multiple ways they could have done it, and we don’t know which one they went with. It’s not like there’s no known way they could have.
>
> \<\\>.
It occurs to me that they probably did use several different methods - probably in the course of building any one pyramid, certainly over the history of pyramid building.
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### Author:  [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/17 "2019-01-06T05:19:37Z")
I recall seeing (somewhere…I forget where) a TV show where a group of people sought to build a mini pyramid. Basically they wanted to see if they could do it with only tech that existed back in ancient Egypt. The pyramid was pretty small compared to the real thing but they showed it was possible to do (after overcoming some problems). Therefore going bigger was merely a matter of the will and resources to do it.
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### Author:  [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/18 "2019-01-06T09:01:33Z")
> [@Quartz](#):
>
> they built one trilithon
okay, folks, let’s be honest here.
Now, please, all of you fellow Dopers---- raise your hand if you knew the word trilithon .
And tell me when you last used it.
(yeah, I love this place. …But sometimes it makes me feel kinda stoopid. ) 🙂
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### Author:  [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/19 "2019-01-06T09:13:07Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> The biggest obstacle is financial.
So, what would it cost to build the great pyramid?
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### Author:  [@Saffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saffer)
#### Post date: [January 6, 2019, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/building-the-pyramids-today/827263/20 "2019-01-06T11:06:03Z")
> [@SamuelA](#):
>
> Since everyone knows the pyramids were alien-made, not man made of course.
Just want to point out that even if we recognise that the pyramid of Giza was man made, it still doesn’t count as the first man made structure to exceed the masonry mass of the pyramid of Giza.
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